


Night of Tears

by Brokenhorn



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-21
Updated: 2016-08-21
Packaged: 2018-08-10 03:29:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7828768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brokenhorn/pseuds/Brokenhorn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It had been years since Soldier 76 had returned to the place where he had died, but he came back to find answers behind what brought down Overwatch. Mercy confronts him and tells the biggest lie she's ever told.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Night of Tears

The full moon covered the rubble in a soft light. On nights like this, Jack always felt the most uneasy. He shifted his weight between his boots, fidgeting as he scanned the area with his tactical visor. No heat signatures. No sounds. A silent night, yes. A holy night? Far from it.

This side of the city, ever since the Swiss Headquarters incident, had fallen to ruin. It wasn’t deemed safe anymore, the explosion had done more than just destroy Overwatch - it destroyed the city and broke it apart into a former shell brimming with anarchy, crime, and injustice. Tonight, however, Soldier 76 was off duty.

 _“It’s strange,”_ he mumbled to himself. _“This is where I died.”_

With each step, he could recall the old days. Marching and training new Overwatch recruits across the drill field. He remembered everything. The quiet evenings with Reyes and McCree playing Poker and Blackjack and even Winston explaining the technical mumbo-jumbo of his newest schematics. He missed it. What was he doing here at his grave, anyway? Trying to relive the past?

 **No.** He shook his head, he needed answers. He demanded them and what better place to find them than the place where Jack Morrison died and Soldier 76 was born.

Each step echoed through the crumbling halls of the old headquarters. All the old tech had been stripped, but he could still see where it all used to be. The main monitor hung overhead against that wall, displaying areas under threat - and here was the holographic battle map where they planned each decisive mission against Talon. It was all here - in his memories. And they were only memories, he had to remind himself. Overwatch was over, those days where he was at his best were over. Now he was just a soldier trying to fulfill one last mission.

The lone soldier tapped the side of his visor and scanned; searching, and seeking any evidence or any clue to how it could have happened. Any forgotten documents or a signature.. He tightened his fist when he shall the ‘OVERWATCH FORSOOK US’ graffiti across the walls and a thick, heavy ‘OVERWATCH FAILED US’ where those global surveillance monitors once were, as he ascended to the headquarters second floor. Something was pulling him up, towards his old office, where the room was exposed to the elements and the steel foundation glowed in the light of the full moon. The fallen building creaked and groaned, the years were not kind to the foundations and it settled like an old house. From his old office, he could see everything – the field where he drilled recruits, the remnants of his statue, all of it. Then he saw it.

An old picture in a broken, forgotten frame. It was the whole team, a rare group photo. The pitiful thing was bent in one corner, crushed by a looter’s boot, and the color had faded but he could still make out the faces. Reinhardt, McCree, Torbjorn, Reyes, Ziegler, the whole crew was there. A tear came to the old man’s eyes and…

_Crunch._

His mind snapped back to the present and he spun on his heels, hitting the back of his foot against his old, broken desk and almost falling backwards. Almost stumbling. Soldier 76 was, suddenly, back on duty. _“_ _Who’s there,”_ he shouted out to the ominous hallway outside his old office _. “Show yourself! I will open fire!”_

Jack felt his heart pumping, bursting with adrenaline once again. This is why he hated those quiet nights, where you could hear yourself remember. Those nights lowered a soldier’s guard, one day, and got his men killed. It was these nights where a man could only shoot first and ask questions later. Something emerged from the shadows – something, someone, it didn’t matter. Maybe it was a roaming omnic, maybe it was a Talon agent trying to finish him off, maybe it was…

 _“It’s just me, Jack,”_ someone he knew emerged from the shadows.

The old man sighed, grateful that he didn’t pull the trigger.

She looked tired, exhausted and haggard. Holding a coat close against her as protection from the cold wind of Switzerland. That blonde hair was at its best in a warm sunrise, but even on the cold night of a full moon, it glowed with a radiance that only a lunar body could provide. Those blue eyes shined like spotlights, searching for him after he ran away from her lab. How long had it been? A year? Two years? **Three?**

There wasn’t anything he could think to say. He could have almost shot her with a burst of plasma emissions, nothing the soldier could say would apologize for that. But Angela didn’t seem to notice. She didn’t seem to care.

 _“You need to come back to the lab, Jack,”_ she said. Except it was more firm. Had she said it already? He couldn’t hear her over the Reyes drilling the recruits in the field and-

 **No.**   **Not now.** He rubbed his temples and tried to push that memory back, groaning as that headache grew a little stronger. Jack remembered.. No, Soldier 76 remembered what Angela told him. Sometimes, traumatic events were triggered by small reminders. Soldiers shaken up from combat remembered battles just by hearing fireworks or a loud noise, others by even smaller things that depended on the person.

Soldier 76 was standing in his own minefield.

 _“Angela, I’m not going back,”_ he said. Maybe a little too firmly, it was hard to tell sometimes when the mask changed his voice. _“I **need** to know what happened. For everyone. How it happened, who did it.. It’s here,”_ he managed to find the strength to stand up again and gestured to the field in front of the Swiss HQ. _“It’s here, damn it! Somewhere! They need to know that Overwatch did not fail them!”_

Angela only looked more sad with each word he said. The woman was tired, heartbroken, and chilled by the night air. _“Jack.. Please, there’s no answers here. None that you will be happy with. Listen to me…”_

 _“No, Angela! I need to find out what happened to Gabriel! For both of us, you and me,”_ Jack felt his voice buckle and crack. Was he doing this for Overwatch? For the lives lost? Or for _Gabriel Reyes?_

 _“Gabriel isn’t here, Jack,”_ Angela tried to stay calm. She was patient for this long but it seemed that the poor doctor was started to lose.

  _“He wouldn’t betray Overwatch, he-“_

_“No, Jack. I-“_

_“Why are you giving up on him?! We both loved him like a brother – more than a brother!”_

Angela winced visibly at Jack’s words and even he, himself, could feel himself grimace at what he said. The three of them always had a complicated relationship. It was a mix of mutual friendship, affection, and rivalry. Jack and Reyes always competed to best the other; poker, blackjack, training.. Ever since Jack was promoted to Commander, Reyes had to prove himself. To everyone, even Angela. But they both knew that Angela didn’t need to be impressed to admire both men.

 _“I saw him die,”_ she snapped and broke the silence. It was the biggest lie she ever told, but, she swore to herself, it was for his own good.

The soldier fell silent fast. Now he just stared at her through the cold, red visor and that black mask that he behind to hide his identity from the world. Soldier 76, he was called now. If Angela wasn’t the one to bring him back, she would have thought him to be a completely different person now. She knew, however, that Commander Jack Morrison was still in there. He could lead again, he just.. needed help.

 _“I wasn’t on base. I was.. I was away when it happened but I came as fast as I could. I brought you both back, there wasn’t any time – there was gunfire and – and,”_ she choked up on her words. The doctor paused. Why was her throat drying up so fast? Was it this hard to lie to someone who was better off not knowing?  
  
_“He died during the surgery. There wasn’t enough time, if I tried any longer, I would have lost you, too,”_ Angela felt her voice crack and crumble and the hot tears streaming down her cold face. It hurt to lie, to lie about what Gabriel had become but she swore to herself that she’d keep Jack safe. Gabriel was gone, but not Jack Morrison. He was here, in front of her, disheartened but she could save him. She would _never_ fail to save anyone _ever again._

Jack had no words. He turned away from the doctor, facing the field where he had so many memories. He remembered everything. It came in all at once, a tidal wave of sound, emotion, smell, and touch. He fell to his knees, leaned forward, threw off the damned black mask. And cried. Jack mourned for Overwatch. For Gabriel Reyes. For a world without much hope left, a world without protectors.  
  
...And Angela mourned with him, but for different reasons.

Tonight was not a silent night, nor a holy night. It was a night of tears.


End file.
